Make note of the Open Source Content Management System Workshop, Thursday, November 2, 2006, on the Duke University campus, Durham, NC, USA. You can see a review of the most popular Open Source Content Management System options with a focus on Drupal and an in-depth exploration of CiviCRM, the premier nonprofit open source Constituent Relationship Management System. This is a great way to become familiar with changing Web technology that empowers non-technical users to accomplish important tasks relating to Web content management and member-donor tracking and soliciting.See www.rtpnet.org/rtpnet/workshop06nov.shtml for details.

Well, we were waiting for someone to post some information about World Usability Day, but since no one else has, we will say it here. There is no way to list on our site all the fun events that are happening. If you want to know what is happening in your part of the world, go to the www.worldusabilityday.org/events page. And enjoy the fun interactive map there. We're going to celebrate that day by helping with the card sort and other activities. Let us know what you think of this celebration. How about helping with a red balloon.

Come next May, we should also celebrate World Information Society Day. And of course, there's always World Food Day. Who would argue with celebrating that!?

If you are into knowledge systems (and knowledge-based development and all that) be sure to check out http://globalkbdweek.mty.itesm.mx/ and the upcoming conference next year. Here's the call for papers. The group www.knowledgesystems.org is a group of entities interested in the development of knowledge systems. They "have a common vision in the emergence of a global consciousness to which we deliberately and systematically contribute in management of knowledge systems practice. This group is made up of entities formed throughout the life of the Center of Knowledge Systems (Community of Knowledge Systems), as well as those external organizations with which individuals from our community have constructive and significant relationships."
Sounds good to us.

A friend of ours, Betty Tew, is starting up her own freelance business.
She is calling it Quality Health Copy and the Web site is: www.qualityhealthcopy.com.

She's targeting the healthcare market and we think her Web site deserves mention because her business is a great synthesis of disciplines. She brings her technical writing and copyediting skills to bear on marketing literature and the healthcare market. Her interest in holistic (integrative) healthcare has found expression in her business.
(What does it say about our society that we need to preface the word health with the word holistic?) We hope she has a healthy business! We know there is plenty of technical documentation and marketing communication that could use some healing.

I have tried to listen to the questions and answers at the Sept. 9th event, at www.droppingknowledge.org with only partial success. The little that I am able to download and listen to (in real time) is great, and the fact that I can listen to it in real time is great. Are others of you tuned in to or participating in this global dialog?

I hope you're not getting tired reading about collaboration and the Web. Here's another installment of the on-going adventure. It's about documents (that old paradigm) and yet with a new twist. We all are familiar with calling documents that change "living documents". But can the document paradigm itself stay alive with all that is available with Web technologies? Here's one company that may be keeping it alive a little longer. InstaColl now offers a tool for collaborative work that allows you to use documents (MS Office documents) and yet work in a collaborative way. See their latest with www.live-documents.com. Let me know what you think.

Things are gearing up for the CM Pros Fall 2006 Summit "Content Management and the World Enterprise" coming in November. This summit occurs yearly and takes place in conjunction with the 3rd Annual Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies. There is a call for papers (deadline August 23). This year the summit is on Monday, 27 November, 2006 at the Boston Westin at Copley Place.
The challenge, we propose, is that this event include more than consultants and try to plumb the depths of practicitioners and their knowledge and expertise. We know this is new field and there are few who feel confident talking about their work in this arena, but we challenge the summit organizers to encourage professionals of all ranks to present their ideas, and we challenge you professionals to contribute your ideas at this summit.

There's a nice article on E-Content Magazine by Bob Doyle, "When to Wiki, When to Blog", that discusses the differences (and similarities) between the two.

He says that essentially

...the wiki valued more permanent knowledge; the blog valued the latest ephemeral headlines...

It will be interesting to see how organizations (like us) integrate both into a single, user experience.

Well, as Tri-XML 2006 wrapped up on Saturday afternoon, there was a definite quiet that settled on the conference hall. Many attendees left early and many who stayed had no questions, just a quiet admiration for those who are keeping up with the dynamic changes in the industry. I'm speculating that though the conference ended quietly, people have gone online now to answer their email, to read their blogs, and to do their own investagative searches on the Web to learn more about the social Web and syndication.

Rick and Bill videotaped part of their session and will determine if portions of that can be posted on this site. If any other of the speakers would like to post presentation material or podcasts, they are welcome to do so at our site. Thanks to the determined few who remained at our presentation about wikis. There were lots of good questions asked. We also enjoyed talking to David Johnson from Sun Microsystems who told us about Roller (the blog server he's working on). We missed his Presentation because it was at the same time as ours, so it was fun to chat during lunch.

Perhaps the whispers that can be heard now are the tips about where this technology is going — more online, more participatory, more social. Time for me to leave the conference and go online.

Signing out from Tri-XML 2006.

This blog entry is being entered while I am at the Tri-XML Conference in Raleigh, NC USA, using the wireless access allowed through North Carolina State University here at the McKimmon Center. This is the second day of the conference and I'm beginning to think that the "Tri" in Tri-XML not only indicates the location (in the Research Triangle area of N.C.) but also may hint at the three trends of XML. All three of these are being covered at this year's conference.

1. XML in structured authoring of large documents (using FrameMaker or XMetaL or Epic or other XML editors), making an impact in traditional document development and publishing.
2. XML in structured blogging and microformats, making XML usable in the existing web infrastructure.
3. XML in RSS syndication, and other trends indicated by Salim Ismail about the next generation of content delivery and retrieval.

There are a lot of cool ideas being discussed here and whether it's John Posada's hold-their-feet-to-the-fire questioning of speakers or Ken Holman's calm articulation of XML minutia or Bill Cava's common sense approach to tackling communication issues, there is a lot to be gained here. Oh, I'm late for the next session. More later.